Z axis floating

When doing some simple text, 2 words I am finding that everything works fine on the first word but when moving to the second word the spindle is raised much higher than usual. It then goes through the process of writing the second word but the bit is 8 to 29 mm higher than the workpiece. It will do 3 pages without contacting the workpiece eventually going down far enough to start engraving the second word. It completes the second word eventually but as you can imagine, the time involved had been dramatically extended whilst the bit is floating around doing nothing. Is this normal? I am sure it didnt do this a few weeks ago and its something that has just started
I am using a diy 3018 engraver